Q: I’m fascinated by Penelope Tree’s intense gaze and Susan Burden’s lavish hair. How can I get my own?

A: Pablo Manzoni, the legendary makeup man at Elizabeth Arden (691 Fifth Avenue), uses double, even triple bands of false eyelashes for maximum drama. Maybelline’s cake mascara, which comes in a red case that includes a cake pan and brush, can be applied to the lash line on top and bottom, as well as to the lashes themselves, for even more drama. Right now, there is no such thing as too long. (Vogue-brand lashes are 79¢ a box at Ray Beauty Supply, 306 West 45th Street.)

As for hair, Kenneth recommends adding volume to the crown with a fall or wiglet, a small hairpiece that matches your own shade and texture. “You want it to blend,” says Kenneth. “If you’re ash blonde, you don’t want to put in a warm blonde. If you’re in your own apartment and the lighting’s soft, it may not look that different. But when you go into a place where there’s a party”—and Kenneth, we’re sure, knows a thing or two about a party—“you may see quite a difference.” Hairpieces made with human hair are a bit of an investment, but they look much better than synthetic versions. Kenneth’s wig department is on the first floor of his townhouse (19 East 54th Street). Smaller hairpieces cost $200, falls and full wigs up to $5,000. You can drop your new friend off for setting and styling—the salon has special ovens just for drying wigs—then pick it up at next week’s appointment.

Q: Short of getting methedrine injections (I’m needle-phobic), what’s the best way to shed a few pounds?

A: Have you tried exercise? If your fitness regimen consists of watching The Dating Game and hooking yourself up to the Relaxacisor for a few muscle shocks, well, you can unplug yourself now. In his best seller, Aerobics (Bantam, $4.95), Air Force colonel and medical doctor Kenneth Cooper (who was just interviewed on Barbara Walters’s radio show, and on the Today show) creates a sensation. According to Cooper, regular physical activity that uses oxygen—specifically running, swimming, bicycle riding, walking, even a game of squash—is the answer to every ailment. This cardiovascular work, done for twenty minutes, three times a week, will not only lower your blood pressure, it will also increase longevity and magically melt away body fat.

Vidal Sassoon’s geometric easy-care cut.

(Photo: Courtesy of Vidal Sassoon)

Q: I don’t have time to style and set my hair before work. What can I do that’s fresh and easy to maintain?

A: Vidal Sassoon, the London-born hairdresser to everyone from Liza to Liz, has pioneered cuts that can be, as he says, washed and worn. With a great, precise cut, hair simply falls into place without sitting under a hair dryer for twenty minutes. Many of Sassoon’s looks are quite geometric—you’ve seen Mary Quant’s five-point cut, Nancy Kwan’s geometric-flapper bob, even Mia Farrow’s pixie crop in this spring’s Rosemary’s Baby. (Sassoon was given the plum assignment because director Roman Polanski owed him a favor.) But Sassoon admits that one of his newest looks, the “Greek goddess,” a short, relaxed cut that’s permed and then dried without being set, was inspired by nights out at Harlem’s jazz clubs. Sassoon, who also cuts Lee Radziwill and Carol Burnett at his New York Salon (801 Madison Avenue; $50 for Sassoon, $18 for a senior stylist), refers to the style as “the Caucasian Afro.”

One reason to fit into your bikini: Acapulco.

(Photo: Slim Aarons/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Q: I’m desperate for a beach vacation. How do I get sun-ready, and, more important, where should I go?

A: First, shrink into bikini shape fast with the Stillman “quick weight loss” diet, also known as the “water diet,” which calls for drinking eight (yes, eight!) ten-ounce glasses of water a day in addition to six small meals that are high in protein and very low in carbohydrates. If you’ve been deprived of the sun lately, pour yourself a base coat with a bottle of Coppertone’s Quick Tanning lotion. You’ll have a bronze shine in three to five hours. When you’re ready, the place to go is Acapulco, where you’ll sunbathe alongside celebrities (Sinatra, Bardot, Eddie Fisher). The Hotel Las Brisas has 200 swimming pools, 263 pink casitas, 160 striped jeeps, making it the hottest destination south of the border. Get there on Aeronaves de Mexico, which has daily flights from New York.

Q: If I want to get some “work” done, do I really have to leave the country?

A: Only a few years ago, if you spotted a particularly taut brow at the Plaza, chances are a “vacation in Brazil”—a.k.a. a visit to Dr. Ivo Pitanguy, the king of plastic surgery—was responsible. But a group of surgeons just founded the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery to share techniques and bring what they call the art of plastic surgery out of the shadows. Many of the society’s surgeons—you’ll have to ask your friends to whisper referrals—operate at the private Doctors Hospital (170 East End Avenue), where rooms are larger than average (some even have views of Gracie Park). It’s the only hospital in the city where you can convalesce from a face-lift—a $2,000 procedure done in two stages, with the face skin trimmed first and eye-area skin trimmed a day or two later—and order in room service, hotel style. Unless they can invent a procedure to suck the fat directly from one’s thighs, however, best to lay off the post-op chocolate cake.